Matthijs van Nieuwkerk. Image Brunopress
Van Nieuwkerk, who has been the face of BNNVara’s successful talk show De Wereld Draait Door for many years, will present ‘a current program full of music’ that will be shown weekly on Sunday evenings from April 21, RTL said. He will also be involved in new programs to be developed by both RTL and the streaming service Videoland.
Van Nieuwkerk broke ties with his then employer BNNVara in November 2022. This happened after De Volkskrant wrote about accusations of inappropriate behavior towards colleagues at DWDD. It turned out that the broadcaster ignored all kinds of warnings about this.
Former employees spoke of ‘extreme outbursts of anger’ in which the presenter shouted at people, humiliated and intimidated them. As a result, dozens of employees suffered burnouts and serious psychological complaints such as anxiety and panic attacks.
Van Nieuwkerk initially said that he did not recognize the image that emerged from the criticism and furthermore did not feel supported by his employer. “The fact that my employer openly doubts my sincerity makes further cooperation impossible,” he wrote in a short statement at the time. In an interview with NRC, Van Nieuwkerk later expressed regret for his behavior. ‘I didn’t know it was that serious for some people. And I am very sorry for that,” he said.
Over the past year, Van Nieuwkerk withdrew from public life and his other programs – Matthijs goes on and Chansons – were canceled. In recent months he has been seen in public again from time to time. In October, for example, he received the first copy of Özcan Akyol’s new book and hosted Anouk’s album presentation.
Period of reflection
The NPO initiated an investigation into inappropriate behavior at the public broadcaster, following the revelations in the Volkskrant. The results are expected in January. The NPO previously said that it would only consider a possible return of Van Nieuwkerk after the results were presented.
RTL emphasizes that ‘Van Nieuwkerk has fully cooperated’ with the investigation. “Matthijs has gone through a period of reflection and has spoken openly and honestly about it in NRC,” says RTL boss Peter van der Vorst. ‘Now that those involved have been heard and the investigation is almost complete, we believe that Matthijs can return to television in the new year. Because the open and good discussions with him have already led to an agreement, and the presentation of the research was recently postponed again, we no longer want to wait to announce it.’
“The outstretched hand of RTL was cordial and immediately very substantive,” Van Nieuwkerk himself responds. ‘They knew what they wanted to ask me for in the coming years and I was very happy with that.’
Also read
Fear culture DWDD
2023-12-08 07:43:15
#Presenter #Matthijs #van #Nieuwkerk #program #Sunday #evening #RTL
